It Hurt To Breathe
by Waltzing Through Naivety
Summary: SasuNaru. A mixture of fluff and angst. I feel a proper summary would ruin this story, so I'll just leave it at that.


I knew it was the last time I would see him.

A melancholy sigh escaped my lips as I watched the silhouettes of two birds chase each other through the golden sky. I watched and I waited.

I could feel the dampness of the grass begin to seep through my trousers, but I paid it no attention. I let my mind slip back to earlier that day: trekking home after the mission, arguing with Sakura, raiding my kitchen for some ramen and instead finding a note taped to the inside of a cupboard door.

"_**Meet me in the forest at sunset. Our clearing."**_

And so here I was. The sun was almost completely out of sight, drowning in the horizon. I sighed again and slumped back against a gnarled tree, not caring if the calloused bark ripped my jacket. I didn't know why I was there. I thought it was just a prank – I wouldn't put it past some of the girls in Konoha. They never approved of my feelings for him. How could they? It's _sinful. _And it had been years since I had last seen him. I was pretty sure he wouldn't risk coming back; certainly not to see me, anyway.

I took a long shuddery breath and tucked my knees under my chin, closing my eyes as I exhaled. I let all the negative feelings envelop me. I braced myself for the tears I felt welling up but, before they could fall, I felt a cool hand on my cheek. I opened my eyes.

"Sasuke." His name left my mouth a mere whisper as I stared into the beautiful dark eyes that I had missed so much.

But these beautiful dark eyes were not as I remembered. These eyes held weariness and determination. They held hope and despair. They held fondness. The eyes I remembered were hard and impenetrable, revealing nothing but slight contempt and arrogance.

_He'd changed._

His almost tentative smile turned into a smirk as he murmured: "And I see you haven't, dobe."

It took me a while to realise I had spoken my thoughts aloud. "You say that like it's a bad thing, teme," I grumbled, looking away. He seemed to take this as an invitation to sit beside me, and he did just that, chuckling quietly as he did so.

Silence quickly filled the air between us, and I found myself gazing at him once more as he watched the last of the ochre sun disappear through the branches of the trees around us. His ivory skin was paler than I remembered, contrasting greatly with his raven hair and eyes. With his flawless skin, his silky hair, his prominent collarbones – _oh God, his collarbones – _he was so beautiful; so unreal. I didn't care that our sequestered clearing had become overgrown and messy, or that the trees' branches had woven themselves together, blocking out most of the sky. It was ours. And I was here with him. I was here with Sasuke.

Seemingly sensing my eyes on him, he turned to look at me, arching a sinfully dark eyebrow as the corner of his lip tugged up in another smirk.

"Wh-what?" I asked defensively. I felt my cheeks become warm and knew that I was blushing.

His smirk only grew as he studied my flushed face, causing me to cross my arms and turn away. It reminded me of our time spent together before he left. We would insult each other relentlessly, occasionally making a suggestive remark in the hopes that it would cause the other to blush. I soon learnt that making his cheeks even slightly pink was near impossible.

"How amusing…" he murmured. I glanced at him over my shoulder to see him inspecting a ladybird which was trekking over the back of his hand.

"Teme," I grumbled again.

I moved to punch him on the shoulder, but I found that I had somehow ended up lying across his lap.

"Idiot." He laughed and smiled down at me, carefully brushing my hair out of my eyes as I rolled over, rearranging myself so my head rested comfortably in his lap. "Remind me how you're going to become Hokage?"

I harrumphed and looked away, though I made no effort to get off him, but my grumpy façade was broken as he gently traced the whisker-like scars on my cheeks. I looked up at him, doe eyed.

I felt him laugh and saw a genuine smile grace his lips. My heart fluttered. "I haven't been this happy in a while," Sasuke almost whispered as his onyx eyes found the sky once again, and his fingers ran through my hair absentmindedly. "I think…" he clicked his tongue, "I missed you."

"I… I missed you too." I smiled but I knew that my eyes didn't show any happiness. My voice caught as I whispered: "I missed you a lot."

Before I could move to hide the tears which were threatening to spill from my eyes, I felt his strong arms around me, lifting me up and pulling me into a tight embrace. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and tried my hardest not to cry. The beautiful boy holding me said nothing; just held me until I had calmed down.

"I'm sorry," I croaked, pushing myself away from him, sitting back down on the grass. I could feel my Adam's apple bobbing up and down as I held in my sobs. "I just… I don't want you to leave me again." I refused to look up at him.

"I have to."

I pulled my knees under my chin, hiding my face in them. "Please." My heart squeezed dangerously.

"Naruto…"

It felt so good to hear him say my name.

"Please," I repeated, my voice muffled by my legs.

Silence.

Suspecting that he had left, I slowly lifted my head, only to his eyes in front of mine. His hand rested tentatively on my cheek. We stayed like that, staring into each other's eyes, for what felt like an eternity, but could never be long enough. But then he sighed, closing his eyes as a weary smile grew on his lips. He leaned forwards and pressed his lips to my forehead gently.

"I love you, dobe," he said simply, answering my questioning look.

My eyes widened as I looked at him in surprise. He stood up and, without another word, he began to leave. I didn't run after him. I didn't call out his name in an attempt to stop him. I didn't tell him that I felt the same. There was no point.

I made no effort to stop the tears this time as I watched his figure disappear. I looked up at the dusk sky, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

It hurt to breathe.


End file.
